Qiṣaṣ al-anbiyā’ (Tales of the prophets) is the title of the various collections of tales originating in the Qur’an and embroidered by different authors. Shown here is one of the best known, attributed to Muhammad ibn Abdullah al-Kisa’i, who is thought to have lived in the 11th century AD. The lives of the prophets were not covered in detail in the Qur’an, so al-Kisa’i and other writers added more elaborate storylines. The Qiṣaṣ begin with God’s creation of the world and descriptions of angels, the ...